Kyon Ki

Plot

Anand (Salman Khan) is deeply in love with a girl named Maya (Rimi Sen). He intentionally throws her into a swimming pool, thinking she can swim, for the sake of getting back at her pranks. However, Maya drowns. After her death, Anand's life is completely shattered and he becomes insane.

Anand is brought to Sir Richard's Mental Sanatorium. His elder brother requests the doctors to admit him immediately. However, they insist on evaluating his mental condition before taking any decision. On being asked a few questions, Anand does not show any signs of insanity, and the doctors conclude that there is nothing wrong with him. Just then, Anand spots a housefly on the table. He tries to capture it but it evades him. While Anand's brother is arguing with the doctors, Anand suddenly becomes very violent, picking up a club and using it to hit everything the fly lands on. This convinces the doctors that he is indeed insane, and they finally admit him.

In the sanatorium, Anand tries to makes friends with other inmates. The chief doctor, Dr. Khurana (Om Puri), is very strict; the two other main doctors are Dr. Sunil (Jackie Shroff) and Dr. Tanvi Khurana (Kareena Kapoor), Dr. Khurana's daughter. Sunil turns out to be Anand's close childhood friend. Anand makes a commotion everyday and behaves like a child. This upsets Tanvi and she almost removes him from the asylum. However, when she finds out about his past, she feels bad and apologizes to him. She starts spending time with him, they become good friends, and she falls in love with him. Tanvi and Sunil work together to cure Anand and make him remember his past. This works, and Anand is finally cured. He decides to leave the asylum but stays when Tanvi expresses her love to him. He reciprocates her love and the two are happy with each other. But there is a problem: Tanvi is engaged to Karan (Sunil Shetty).

When Tanvi's father, Dr. Khurana finds out about her and Anand, he is angered. He tells Tanvi to leave him but she refuses. When Karan finds out, he tells Tanvi to go with Anand. At the asylum, Anand explodes into a violent rage against Dr. Khurana, which results in Khurana lobotomizing him. Sunil and Tanvi arrive at the asylum to smuggle Anand out so that he and Tanvi can run away together, but it is too late when Sunil finds out about Anand's lobotomy. Realizing he is better off dead, Sunil sorrowfully kills his neurologically-disabled friend by suffocating him with a pillow. After Sunil confesses to Khurana about the act of euthanasia, Tanvi becomes insane due to the shock of Anand's death. She is admitted as a patient in the same asylum.

Cast

Release and reception

Kyon Ki released on 2 November 2005 to coincide with the festival of Diwali in India. It performed poorly at the box office and grossed over ₹231 million. Another Priyadarshan-directed film was released on the same day, the comedy Garam Masala which was commercially successful at the box office, grossing over ₹546 million.

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Urvashi Asharl of The Times of India commented that the film was "a huge disappointment" as it had a predictable and dull plot with too many songs but praised the performances of Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, and Jackie Shroff. Rediff.com reviewer Patcy N. also felt that there were too many songs and criticised the script and slow pacing of the film. Namrata Joshi writing for the magazine Outlook wrote that the central romance between Khan and Kapoor was not believable and criticised the acting and script saying "all the actors just sleepwalk through their ill-sketched roles". She also described the depiction of violence against mentally ill patients as therapy in the film as "offensive to say the least".

A group of psychiatrists in Mumbai referred the film to the National Human Rights Commission of India asking for certain scenes to be removed. They felt that the film's depiction of mentally ill patients and their treatment was derogatory and misleading.

Soundtrack

Himesh Reshammiya composed all the songs while S. P. Venkatesh had composed the film score. The lyrics were penned by Sameer.